The director of our daycare sent the following message. She’s clearly in a difficult spot. I don’t think business interruption would pay anything if they’re not forced to close, and the expenses continue even if kids aren’t going to the center.
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Dear Parents,
As for now, [center] has decided to remain open next week.
We were waiting for OSSE to take a decision in regards to this critical matter. I was very disappointing to hear from them (this afternoon, after several phone calls requesting guidance) that they were expecting for us to take the decision independently.
If, due to any other unexpected reason, we are forced to shut down (a shutdown of the city or nationwide for example), we'll be immediately communicating that decision through Tadpoles in an email format and also through the emergency texting that Tadpoles allows.
At this point, we'll defer to parents in regards to their decision whether to bring children to the center or keep them home during next week. It's critical that you inform us of this decision so we can have clear estimation on number of students and the necessary staff.
Some of you have reached out to us with concerns about the ability of our teachers to continue earning a salary if they have to stay home with their children in light of the school closures announced for this area. We appreciate those concerns, and we wanted to let you know that we are planning to work with each teacher to assess their individual situation and do our best to help them resolve it, whether it is through reimbursement of child care expenses, reimbursement of ride-share expenses should public transportation cease to function, or any other means at our disposal. We are committed to the welfare of our teachers as well as that of your children, and we will do everything in our power to continue providing the services that you rely on, as long as it’s safe to do so and we are not instructed otherwise by the DC authorities.
Should we be forced to close for an extended period of time, the situation would become more complex. We are a small family-owned business that relies exclusively on our monthly tuition income to cover all recurring expenses such as payroll, benefits, rent, payments on our construction loans, etc. We don’t receive any public funding towards our operating expenses. Absent some form of relief on the part of the DC or Federal governments, we would be unable to cover those expenses if our tuition income were to be interrupted. While we are very much aware of the inherent issues with charging tuition in the event we can’t provide the service for which the tuition is being paid, at this point we don’t have a solution that would keep our centers afloat and our staff earning a steady income should we have to interrupt our operations and stop charging tuition. Given these circumstances, we would of course waive the two-month advance notice requirement should any of you decide to disenroll your children from the program, but hope you would choose not to do so.
We know we are not, by any stretch of the imagination, the only business affected by the current situation, and both the Federal and DC governments are looking into ways of helping businesses of all sizes overcome the existential challenges brought on by it.
We also want you to know that financial considerations will never outweigh our concern for safety of your children and their families as well as for our staff, and we will not stay open if we believe that we are putting anyone at risk by doing so.
We will keep you informed of any new developments and continue practicing often and effective cleaning and sanitizing measures. Please reach out to us with any questions!
Thanks for your patience while we were trying to take the best decision possible during these unprecedented circumstances,
[director].